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Friday 20 November 2009

The conservative movement that took shape in the late 1960s was driven by civil rights resentment. Men like Wesley Pruden want the world to bow and scrape before America in precisely the way black southerners once deferred to white folks. And for much the same reason. This is a political philosophy driven by racial resentment. I’m not suggesting that everybody associated with the conservative movement is bigoted. It’s not that simple. But politicians like Richard Nixon (cautiously) and Ronald Reagan (enthusiastically) embraced the sworn enemies of the civil rights movement as natural allies. Not everyone in the conservative camp was happy with this development, but they all learned to live with it. You couldn’t survive as a white son or daughter of Mississippi in the early 1960s unless you backed segregation; and you can’t survive within the conservative movement today without embracing white supremacy. You don’t have to be gross about it, but you must never criticize those who are. Republican strategy in the South is predicated on the conviction that you can alienate non-white voters and still win elections. You can’t win every election this way because white voters don’t predominate in every precinct. But civil rights resentment is so prevalent in the South that an unapologetically pro-white political agenda, even if it comes wrapped in the confederate flag, will push you over the top when it matters. Friends of Justice

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